1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a funnel assembly for linking adjacent bottles. More particularly, the invention relates to an adjustable mating funnel assembly composed of a plurality of clamping members adapted for selectively coupling the openings of adjacent bottles regardless of the opening size of the adjacent bottles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The restaurant industry, and some homeowners, have made it a common practice to pour the contents of a partially full bottle into a second dispensing bottle so that the dispensing bottle is always relatively full when used. The process is used for consolidating the material held in the bottles. It is also often desirable to refill a serving bottle from a large storage bottle so as to avoid the cost of constantly replacing the serving bottles.
This practice of pouring the contents of one bottle to a second bottle is commonly referred to as “mating” and is accomplished though the use of a steady hand pouring the contents from one bottle to another, a funnel directing the contents between bottles, or a coupling structure linking adjacent bottles for controlled passage of their contents.
With this in mind, a variety of devices have been developed for facilitating the transfer of the contents of one bottle to another. Many of these devices require that one bottle be attached to another bottle, for example, via a connecting device with threading designed to engage the bottles for mating. However, the prior art devices do not readily allow for the transfer of material from bottles having different shaped and sized openings and necks. The prior art devices are generally designed for specific containers and must, therefore, be used with bottles having specific threading and diameters.
With this in mind, a need exists for a universal funnel assembly allowing for the “mating” of various bottles regardless of the shape, size or thread configuration (or lack thereof). The present invention provides such a funnel assembly.